Prophets Isaiah, Aramaya, Daniel, Ezra

Prophets Isaiah, Aramaya, Daniel, Ezra | Daiyah

Prophet Isaiah/Yeshayahu (PBUH)

سيدنا إشعيا عليه السلام

Among the prophets between David and Zakariah is Isaiah (pbuh), Ibn Amoz (Amisiah). According to Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq, Isaiah (pbuh) appeared before Zakariah (pbuh) and Yahya (John the Baptist) (pbuh). He is among those who prophesied about Isa (Jesus) (pbuh) and Muhammad (pbuh). The king during his time was called Hezekiah (Hazkia). He listened and was obedient to Isaiah in what he advised him to do and prohibit for the good of the state. Affairs took momentum among the Israelites. The king became sick with an infected foot. While he was sick, King Sennacherib (Sinharib) of Babylon advanced towards Jerusalem with sixty thousand men.

The people were greatly terrified. The King asked Isaiah: "What did Allah reveal to you regarding Sennacherib and his army?" He replied: "He has not yet revealed anything to me." Then the revelation came down for King Hezekiah to appoint a successor, as he wished, because his end was at hand. When Isaiah told him this, the king turned to the qibla (the direction faced in prayer); he prayed, glorified Allah, invoked Him, and wept. Weeping and invoking Allah the All-Powerful and majestic with a sincere heart, trust and patience, he said: "O Lord of lords, and God of gods! O, Benevolent and Merciful One Whom neither sleep nor nodding can overpower, remember me for my deeds and my just judgment over the children of Israel; and all that was from You, and You know it better than I do, my open acts and my secrets are with You."

Allah answered his prayers had compassion on him. He revealed to Isaiah to tell him the glad tidings that He had compassion for his weeping and would extend his life for a further fifteen years and save him from the enemy, Sennacherib. When Isaiah told this to Hezekiah, his disease was healed. Evil and sadness departed, and he fell prostrate, saying: "O Lord, it is You Who grants kingship to whomsoever You wish and dethrones whomsoever You wish and elevates whomsoever You wish and degrades whomsoever You wish, Knower of the unseen and the evident. And lo! You are the First and the Last; the Manifest and the Perceived; You grant mercy and answer the prayers of the troubled ones."

When he raised his head, Allah revealed to Isaiah to command the king to extract the water of the fig and apply it to his sore, and he would be whole and cured. He did so and was cured.

Then Allah sent death upon the army of Sennacherib. In the morning they were all corpses, except Sennacherib and five of his companions, among them Nebuchadnezzar (Bukhtanasar). The king of Israel immediately sent for them, put them in shackles and displayed them in the land for seventy days to spite and insult them. Every day each of them was fed a loaf of barley bread; after seventy days he confined them in prison.

Allah then revealed to Isaiah that the king should send them back to their country so that they might warn their people what would happen to them. When they returned, Sennacherib gathered his people and told them what had happened to them. The priests and magicians said to him: "We told you about their Lord and their prophets, but you did not listen to us. It is a nation which, with their God, nobody can overcome." So, Sennacherib was afraid of Allah. He died seven years later.

Ibn Ishaaq also reported that when King Hezekiah of Israel died, the Israelites' condition deteriorated; there was political confusion, and their wickedness increased. Isaiah preached to them what Allah revealed to him, directing them to righteousness and warning them of Allah's severe punishment. His preaching made him their enemy and they decided to kill him, so he escaped from them.

Ibn Ishaaq also reported an Israelite interpolation which said that when Isaiah was passing by a tree, it opened, and he entered therein; but Satan saw him and held onto the loop of his garment so that it stuck out. When they saw it, they brought a saw and sawed the tree, and him with it. Indeed, from Allah we come and to him we return.

Prophet Aramaya/Jeremiah (PBUH)

سيدنا إرميا عليه السلام

Another prophet is Jeremiah (pbuh) Ibn Hilkiah from the House of Levi Ibn Jacob (pbuh). It has been claimed that he was Al-Khidr. This was related by Al-Dahak from Ibn Abbas but it is not true.

Ibn Asakir reported that it is written in some scrolls that Jeremiah stood upon the blood of John Ibn Zechariah while it was flowing and he said: "O blood! You have enlightened the people, so take a rest." So it stopped and condensed until it disappeared.

There is a tradition that Jeremiah asked Allah: "O Lord! Which of Your slaves is more lovable to You?" He answered: "Those who remember Me most away from their remembrance of My creatures; those who are not thinking of death, nor speak of eternal living; those who, when they are allured by the riches of this world, despise them, and when they lose them are happy; those have My love, indeed, and I shall reward them more than they desired."

Prophet Daniyyel/Daniel (PBUH)

سيدنا دانيال عليه السلام

Ibn Abi Al-Dunya narrated the following, based on a chain of citations. Nabuchadnezzar captured the two lions and threw them into a pit. He then brought Daniel and threw him at them; yet they did not pounce at him; rather, he remained as Allah wished. When then he desired food and drink, Allah revealed to Jeremiah, who was in Sham (Palestine/Syria): "Prepare food and drink for Daniel." He said: "O Lord I am in Jerusalem while Daniel is in Babylon (Iraq)." Allah revealed to him: "Do what I have commanded you to do, and I shall send you one who will carry you and what you have prepared." Jeremiah did so and Allah sent him something that would carry him until he arrived at the brink of the pit. Then Daniel asked: "Who is this?" He answered: "I am Jeremiah." He asked: "What brought you?" He answered: "Your Lord sent me to you." He said: "And so my Lord has remembered me?" He said: "Yes." Daniel said: "Praise be to Allah Who never forgets those who appeal to Him! And Praise be to Him Who compensates good with good, rewards patience with safety, dispels harm after distress, assures us when we are overwhelmed, and is our hope when skill fails us."

Yunus Ibn Bakeer reported that Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq reported that Abu Khalid Ibn Dinar reported that Abul Aa'lia said: "When Tastar was invaded, we found, in the treasure house of Al-Harmazan, a bed on which lay a dead man, with a holy script at his bedside. We took the scripture to Umar Ibn Al Khattab. He called Ka-b and he translated it into Arabic, and I was the first Arab to read it. I read it as I read the Qur'an." Here, I (Khalid Ibn Dinar) said to Abul Aa'lia: "What was in it?" He said: "Life history, annals, songs, speech, and what is to come." I asked: "And what did you do with the man?" He said: "We dug in the river bank thirteen separate graves. At nightfall we buried him and leveled all the graves in order to mislead people for they would tamper with him." I asked: "And what did they want from him?" He said: "When the sky was cloudless for them, they went out with his bed, and it rained." I asked: "Who did you think the man was?" He said; "A man called Daniel." I asked: "And for how long had he been dead when you found him?" He said: "Three hundred years." I asked: "Did not anything change on him?" He said: "No, except for the hairs of his face (beard, and mustache); the skin of the prophets is not harmed by the earth, nor devoured by hyenas."

The chain of citation from Abul Aa'lia is good, but if the date of the dead man's death was really three hundred years, then he was not a prophet but a saintly an, because there was no prophet between Isa (Jesus)(pbuh), and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), according to the hadith in Bukhari. The span between them (the dead man and Muhammad (pbuh)) was variously reported as four hundred, six hundred, and six hundred twenty years. It could be that he had died eight hundred years earlier, which would be near to Daniel's time, if his being Daniel is correct. However, he could still have been somebody else, either a prophet or a saint. Yet the truth is more likely he was Daniel, because he had been taken by the King of Persia and remained imprisoned as already mentioned.

It was narrated with a correct citation that his nose as one span (nine inches) long. Anas Ibn Malik, with a good citation, said that his nose was an arm's stretch long (two feet), on which basis he is thought to be an ancient prophet from before this period. Almighty Allah knows best.

Abu Bakr Ibn Abu Dunya related without citation that when Abu Musa was told that he was Daniel, he stayed with him, embraced him, and kissed him. Then he wrote to Umar that he found with him nearly ten thousand Dhirhams. It used to be that people came to borrow from it, and if they did not return it, they became sick. Umar ordered his burial in a grave to be kept secret and the money to be sent to the treasury, with the b ox and the ring a gift to him (Abu Musa).

It is related of Abu Musa that he told four of the captives to dam the river and dig a grave in the middle, where he buried him. Then he beheaded the four captives in order for the secret to be kept from all except himself.

The Tomb of Prophet Daniel (Iran)

Ibn Abu Dunya also reported, by a chain of citations, that a ring was seen on the hand of Ibn Abu Barda Ibn Abu Musa. The gem was carved with two lions with a man between them, whom they were licking. Abu Barda said: "This is the ring of that man whom the people of this town say is Daniel. Abu Musa took it the day he was buried. The learned people of the town told Abu Musa that soothsayers and astrologers told the king in Daniel's time that a boy would be born who would destroy him and his kingdom. So the king swore to kill all the baby boys, except that they threw Daniel in the lions' den, and the lion and lioness began to lick him and did not harm him. His mother came and took him. Abu Musa said: "And so Daniel carved his image and the image of the two lions into the gem of his ring, for him not to forget Allah's blessing upon him in this.'" This has a good citation.

Prophet Uzair/Ezra (PBUH)

سيدنا عزير عليه السلام

Ishaaq Ibn Bishr reported, on the authority of Ibn' Abbas and others, that Ezra was a saint and a wise man. He went out one day to his own farm, as was his custom. About noon he came to a deserted, ruined place and felt the heat. He entered the ruined town and dismounted his donkey, taking figs and grapes in his basket. He went under the shade of the khaiba tree and ate his food. Then he got up to look at what remained of the ruins. The people had long been lost, and he saw bones.
"Oh! How will Allah ever bring it to life after its death?" (Ch 2:259 Quran)

He said this not out of doubt but out of curiosity. Allah sent the Angel of Death to take his life. He remained dead for 100 years. After 100 years had passed and there had been changes in Israelite affairs, Allah sent an angel upon Ezra to revive his heart and his eyes in order for him to feel and see how Allah revives the dead. The angel said: "For how long did you sleep?" He said: "A day or part of a day." He said this because he knew he had slept early in the afternoon and woke up late in the afternoon. The angel said: "You remained asleep for 100 years." He ate and drank the food which he had prepared before he was overtaken by that long sleep. Then the angel revived his donkey.

Almighty Allah said: "And look at your donkey! Thus We have made of you a sign for the people. Look at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh." When this was clearly shown to him he said: "I know now that Allah is able to do all things." (Ch 2:259)

He rode on his donkey and entered his native place, but the people did not recognize him, nor did his household, except the maid, now an old woman. He asked her: "Is this the house of Ezra?" She said: "Yes, but the people have long forgotten Ezra." He said: "I am Ezra, Allah had taken my life for a 100 years and has not returned it to me." She said: "Ezra used to be answered when he prayed to Allah. Pray to cure me of blindness if you are Ezra." He prayed for her and massaged her eyes and took her by the hand. "Get up by the power of Allah," he said. The crippled woman stood up and walked; she opened her eyes and saw; her blindness was gone. She said: "I bear witness that you are Ezra."

She rushed to the assembly of the Israelites. Ezra's son was 118 years old, and his children 's children now were lords of the assembly. She called out to them saying: "This is Ezra come to you." They accused her of lying. She said: "I am your old maid. He has just prayed to Allah for me, and here I am whole again, walking and seeing." The people stood up and looked at him. His son said: "My father had a mark between his shoulders, a black mole," and they discovered it. They said: "None among us memorized the Torah since Nabuchadnezzar burned it, except Ezra; and there was only one copy of the Torah, which was hidden by Sarukha. He buried it in the days of Nabuchadnezzar in a place none but Ezra knows." Ezra led the people to the hidden place and took out that copy of the Torah. Its leaves had rotted, and the book itself crumpled.

Ezra sat under the shade of a tree surrounded by the children of Israel and copied out the Torah for them from that script. Henceforth, the Jews said that Ezra is the son of Allah, for 2 evidences which came down from Heaven and for his copying the torah and for his fighting the cause of the Israelites.

He had been copying the Torah for Ezekial in the land of darkness in the hermitage of Ezekiel. The village which was in ruins is said to be Sayrabadh.

Ibn Abbas commanded: "So it is as Allah said: "We have made of you a sign for the people." (Ch 2:259) That is, for the Israelites, in that he was sitting among his children, the old men, and he a youth. He died as a forty year old, and Allah resurrected him at the same age on the day of his death."